The next Scottish Parliament election is due to be held on Thursday 6 May, 2021[1] to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament. It would be the sixth general election since the devolved parliament was established in 1999.

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Under the Scotland Act 1998, an ordinary general election to the Scottish Parliament would normally have been held on the first Thursday in May four years after the 2016 election, i.e. in May 2020.[2] This would have clash with the proposed date of the 2020 United Kingdom general election but became a moot point when the latter was brought forward to 2017.[3] In November 2015, the Scottish Government published a Scottish Elections (Dates) Bill, which proposed to extend the term of the Parliament to five years.[3] That Bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 25 February 2016 and received Royal Assent on 30 March 2016, setting the new date for the election as 6 May 2021.[1]

If Parliament itself resolves that it should be dissolved, with at least two-thirds of the Members (i.e. 86 Members) voting in favour, the Presiding Officer proposes a date for an extraordinary general election and the Parliament is dissolved by the monarch by royal proclamation.[4]

It does not necessarily require a two-thirds majority to precipitate an extraordinary general election, because under the Scotland Act Parliament is also dissolved if it fails to nominate one of its members to be First Minister within certain time limits, irrespective of whether at the beginning or in the middle of a parliamentary term.[4] Therefore, if the First Minister resigned, Parliament would then have 28 days to elect a successor (s46(2)b and s46(3)a). If no new First Minister was elected then the Presiding Officer would ask for Parliament to be dissolved under s3(1)a. This process could also be triggered if the First Minister lost a vote of confidence by a simple majority (i.e. more than 50%), as s/he must then resign (Scotland Act 1998 s45(2)). To date the Parliament has never held a confidence vote on a First Minister.

No extraordinary general elections have been held to date. Any extraordinary general elections would be in addition to ordinary general elections, unless held less than six months before the due date of an ordinary general election, in which case they supplant it.[4] The subsequent ordinary general election reverts to the first Thursday in May, a multiple of four years after 1999.[4]

1.
Scotland
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses

2.
Scottish Parliament election, 2016
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The 2016 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 5 May 2016 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the general election since the parliament was established in 1999. It was the first parliamentary election in Scotland in which 16 and 17 year olds were able to vote and it was also the first time the three main parties were led by women. Parliament went into dissolution on 24 March 2016, allowing the official period of campaigning to get underway, of those five parties, four changed their leader since the 2011 election. During the campaign, a series of televised debates took place, BBC Scotland held the first leaders’ debate on 24 March, STV broadcast the next on 29 March, and BBC Scotland hosted the final debate on 1 May. The Scottish National Party won the election and a term in government. The Conservatives saw a significant increase in support and displaced the Labour Party as the second largest party at the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Greens won six seats on the regional list and overtook the Liberal Democrats, who remained on five seats. Under the Scotland Act 1998, a general election to the Scottish Parliament would normally have been held on the first Thursday in May four years after the 2011 election. In May 2010, the new UK Government stated in its coalition agreement that the next United Kingdom general election would also be held in May 2015. In response to criticism, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg offered the right to vary the date of the Scottish Parliament election by a year either way. All the main political parties then stated their support for delaying the election by a year, the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, a statute of the UK Parliament, moved the date of the Scottish Parliament general election to 5 May 2016. The date of the poll may be varied by up to one month either way by the monarch, therefore, if the First Minister resigned, Parliament would then have 28 days to elect a successor. If no new First Minister was elected then the Presiding Officer would ask for Parliament to be dissolved under s3a and this process could also be triggered if the First Minister lost a vote of confidence by a simple majority, as s/he must then resign. To date the Parliament has never held a vote on a First Minister. No extraordinary general elections have been held to date, the subsequent ordinary general election reverts to the first Thursday in May, a multiple of four years after 1999. It was envisaged that the election would still have taken place as scheduled if Scotland had voted in favour of independence in 2014. For that reason there were far more challenges than normal within the SNP, the First Periodical Review of the Scottish Parliaments constituencies and regions by the Boundary Commission for Scotland, was announced on 3 July 2007. The Commission published its proposals for the regional boundaries in 2009

3.
Scottish Parliament
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The Scottish Parliament, is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the city, Edinburgh. The most recent general election to the Parliament was held on 5 May 2016, as a consequence, both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England ceased to exist, and the Parliament of Great Britain, which sat at Westminster in London was formed. The Act delineates the legislative competence of the Parliament – the areas in which it can make laws – by explicitly specifying powers that are reserved to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Scottish Parliament has the power to legislate in all areas that are not explicitly reserved to Westminster, the British Parliament retains the ability to amend the terms of reference of the Scottish Parliament, and can extend or reduce the areas in which it can make laws. The first meeting of the new Parliament took place on 12 May 1999, initial Scottish proposals in the negotiation over the Union suggested a devolved Parliament be retained in Scotland, but this was not accepted by the English negotiators. Suggestions for a devolved Parliament were made before 1914, but were shelved due to the outbreak of the First World War, one of the principal objectives of the commission was to examine ways of enabling more self-government for Scotland, within the unitary state of the United Kingdom. Kilbrandon published his report in 1973 recommending the establishment of a directly elected Scottish Assembly to legislate for the majority of domestic Scottish affairs, the party argued that the revenues from the oil were not benefitting Scotland as much as they should. The combined effect of events led to Prime Minister Wilson committing his government to some form of devolved legislature in 1974. However, it was not until 1978 that final legislative proposals for a Scottish Assembly were passed by the United Kingdom Parliament, publishing its blueprint for devolution in 1995, the Convention provided much of the basis for the structure of the Parliament. Devolution continued to be part of the platform of the Labour Party which, in May 1997, an election was held on 6 May 1999, and on 1 July of that year power was transferred from Westminster to the new Parliament. Since September 2004, the home of the Scottish Parliament has been a new Scottish Parliament Building. The Scottish Parliament building was designed by Spanish architect Enric Miralles in partnership with local Edinburgh Architecture firm RMJM which was led by Design Principal Tony Kettle. Some of the features of the complex include leaf-shaped buildings. Throughout the building there are many repeated motifs, such as based on Raeburns Skating Minister. Crow-stepped gables and the upturned boat skylights of the Garden Lobby, Queen Elizabeth II opened the new building on 9 October 2004. In March 2006, one of the Holyrood buildings roof beams slipped out of its support and was left dangling above the back benches during a debate, the debating chamber was subsequently closed, and MSPs moved to The Hub for one week, whilst inspections were carried out. During repairs, all business was conducted in the Parliaments committee room two

4.
Nicola Sturgeon
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Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon is a Scottish politician who is the fifth and current First Minister of Scotland and the leader of the Scottish National Party, in office since 2014. She is the first woman to hold either position, Sturgeon has been a member of the Scottish Parliament since 1999, first as an additional member for the Glasgow electoral region from 1999 to 2007, and as the member for Glasgow Southside since 2007. A law graduate of the University of Glasgow, Sturgeon worked as a solicitor in Glasgow, after being elected to the Scottish Parliament, she served successively as the SNPs shadow minister for education, health and justice. In 2004 she announced that she would stand as a candidate for the leadership of the SNP following the resignation of John Swinney, however, she later withdrew from the contest in favour of Alex Salmond, standing instead as depute leader on a joint ticket with Salmond. Both were subsequently elected, and as Salmond was still an MP in the House of Commons, the SNP won the highest number of seats in the Scottish Parliament in the 2007 election and Salmond was subsequently appointed First Minister. He appointed Sturgeon as Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Health and she was appointed as Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities in 2012. No one else was nominated for the post by the nominations closed. She was formally elected to succeed Salmond as First Minister on 19 November, forbes magazine ranked Sturgeon as the 50th most powerful woman in the world in 2016 and 2nd in the United Kingdom. Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon was born in Ayrshire Central Hospital in Irvine and she is the eldest of three daughters born to Robin Sturgeon, an electrician, and Joan Kerr Sturgeon, a dental nurse. Her family has roots in North East England, her paternal grandmother was from Ryhope in what is now the City of Sunderland. Sturgeon grew up in Prestwick and Dreghorn and she attended Dreghorn Primary School from 1975 to 1982 and Greenwood Academy from 1982 to 1988. She later studied at the University of Glasgow, where she read Law, Sturgeon graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1992 and a Diploma in Legal Practice the following year. During her time at Glasgow University she was active as a member of the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association, following her graduation, Sturgeon completed her legal traineeship at McClure Naismith, a Glasgow firm of solicitors, in 1995. In the mid-1990s, Sturgeon and Charles Kennedy went together on a study visit to Australia. The 1997 general election saw Sturgeon selected to fight the Glasgow Govan seat for the SNP, boundary changes meant that the notional Labour majority in the seat had increased substantially. Sarwar did, however, win the seat with a majority of 2,914 votes, shortly after this, Sturgeon was appointed as the SNPs spokesperson for energy and education matters. Sturgeon stood for election to the Scottish Parliament in the first Scottish Parliament election in 1999 as the SNP candidate for Glasgow Govan. Although she failed to win the seat, she was placed first in the SNPs regional list for the Glasgow region, during the first term of the Scottish Parliament, Sturgeon served as a member of the Shadow Cabinets of both Alex Salmond and John Swinney

5.
Ruth Davidson
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After graduating from Edinburgh University, she worked as a BBC journalist and signaller in the Territorial Army. In the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, Davidson stood for election in the Glasgow Kelvin constituency and she finished in 4th place in the former, but was successful in the latter, and following party leader Annabel Goldies resignation in May 2011, Davidson stood in the subsequent leadership election. She won the contest and was declared party leader on 4 November 2011, Davidson was born at the Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion in Edinburgh and was raised in Selkirk and later in Fife. Davidson has lived in Glasgow for most of her adult life and her family lived in Bridgelands Road, Selkirk, and Davidson attended Knowepark Primary School until primary three. When her father took a job in the industry, the family left the Borders for Fife. She went on to study English literature at the University of Edinburgh, after graduation, she joined the Glenrothes Gazette as a trainee reporter. She later moved to Kingdom FM followed by Real Radio and finally joined BBC Scotland in late 2002 where she worked as a radio journalist and she left the BBC in 2009 to study International Development at the University of Glasgow. She served as a Signaller in the Territorial Army for three years before suffering an injury in a training exercise at Sandhurst. She was also a Sunday school teacher, in 2009 after having left the BBC to study at the University of Glasgow, Davidson joined the Conservative Party. She said she was inspired by David Camerons call, in the wake of the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal and she came in third with 5. 2% of the vote, losing to Labours Willie Bain. She tried again unsuccessfully in the seat at the 2010 general election. From early 2010 to March 2011 she worked as the head of the office of the then Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie. She played a part in the organisation of campaign media events at the 2010 general election. This would have made it unlikely that Davidson would have been able to be elected to the Scottish Parliament. However, with only a couple of months to go, newspaper stories appeared in March 2011 that questioned Macaskills past business history and it was revealed that Macaskill failed to fully disclose his business career on his CV to party members ahead of a 2010 internal party selection contest. The Party chairman Andrew Fulton then decided that Macaskill was to be deselected, then after coming a distant fourth in Glasgow Kelvin, Davidson was elected to the Scottish Parliament on the Glasgow region list. After the election, she was appointed by Goldie as the Conservative spokesperson for Culture, Europe, police Scotland stated in reference to the report that no evidence of criminality was found and consequently there was no charge to answer. Following the resignation of Annabel Goldie as Scottish Conservative leader on 9 May 2011 and her rivals later claimed that Davidson received assistance from Party headquarters, though her supporters stated that these claims were part of a smear campaign

6.
Scottish National Party
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The Scottish National Party is a Scottish nationalist and social-democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence and its leader, Nicola Sturgeon, is the current First Minister of Scotland. With the advent of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, the SNP became the second largest party, serving two terms as the opposition. The SNP came to power in the 2007 Scottish general election, forming a minority government, before going on to win the 2011 election, after which it formed Scotlands first majority government. The SNP is the largest political party in Scotland in terms of membership, reaching over 120,000 members in July 2016, currently the party has 63 MSPs,54 MPs and approximately 400 local councillors. The SNP also currently has 2 MEPs in the European Parliament, the SNP is a member of the European Free Alliance. The party does not have any members of the House of Lords, the SNP was formed in 1934 through the merger of the National Party of Scotland and the Scottish Party, with Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham as its first president. Young was imprisoned for refusing to be conscripted, the SNP first won a parliamentary seat at the Motherwell by-election in 1945, but Robert McIntyre MP lost the seat at the general election three months later. They next won a seat in 1967, when Winnie Ewing was the winner of a by-election in the previously safe Labour seat of Hamilton. This brought the SNP to national prominence, leading to the establishment of the Kilbrandon Commission, the SNP hit a high point in the October 1974 general election, polling almost a third of all votes in Scotland and returning 11 MPs to Westminster. This success was not surpassed until the 2015 general election, however, the party experienced a large drop in its support at the 1979 General election, followed by a further drop at the 1983 election. In May 2011, the SNP won a majority in the Scottish Parliament with 69 seats. The No vote prevailed in a campaign, prompting the resignation of First Minister Alex Salmond. Forty-five percent of Scottish voters cast their ballots for independence, with the Yes side receiving less support than late polling predicted. The SNP rebounded from the loss in the referendum at the UK general election in May 2015, led by Salmonds successor as first minister. The party went from holding six seats in the House of Commons to 56, all but three of the fifty nine constituencies in the country elected an SNP candidate. BBC News described the result as a Scots landslide. The party gained an additional 1. 1% of the vote from the 2011 election

7.
Scottish Conservative Party
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It describes itself as a centre-right political party. It is the second largest party in the devolved Scottish Parliament, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives is Ruth Davidson MSP, who has held the post since 2011. The modern Scottish Conservative Party was established in 1965 with the merger of the Unionist Party into the Conservative Party of England and they had also achieved a majority of the vote 24 years earlier in the 1931 general election with 54. 4%. The party has returned a single MP from Scotland in the 2001,2005,2010 and 2015 Westminster elections and they currently control 31 of the 129 seats, with 24 of these seats won through the additional member system. The party has one of the six Scottish seats in the European Parliament, in 2012, the Scottish Conservatives had 11,000 members. As of May 2016, the party is the second largest in the Scottish Parliament following a gain of 16 seats in the Holyrood Elections. Electoral defeat in the 1959 general election led to the reforms of 1965 and it was renamed the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party and constitutionally came under the control of the UK party. These, and further reforms in 1977, saw the Scottish Conservatives being viewed as a unit, with its personnel, finance. These changes had serious implications for the Conservatives Scottish identity and this may seem paradoxical, but the Unionist Party had benefited greatly from its projection as an independent Scottish party opposing the London-based British Labour Party. These elections witnessed the rise of the SDP-Liberal Alliance, which ate into traditional Unionist Party vote, along with increased support for Labour and SNP in 1987. At the 1987 General Election, the Conservatives had their number of Scottish seats lowered from 21 to 10, by then advocating the introduction of the poll tax a year early in Scotland they further exacerbated the image of being anti-Scottish. Ironically the Scottish Conservatives had been amongst the fiercest advocates of introducing the poll tax to replace the system of local government rates and it was the first time in almost 180 years that a centre-right party had been completely shut out in Scotland. It was the establishment of a Scottish Parliament, an institution they had opposed vehemently, however, this was only because of the Parliaments proportional representation electoral system, and the level of national support they received in 1999 and 2003 hardly moved. Following their by-election victory, the Conservatives managed to pick up three seats in 2003, Edinburgh Pentlands, Galloway and Upper Nithsdale and Ayr. In subsequent Westminster elections, their vote has been equally sluggish, with a rearrangement of parliamentary constituencies in 2005 the sitting Conservative MP in Galloway and Upper Nithsdale subsequently lost against Labour in the 2005 election in a redrawn seat. However the party did gain the Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale seat from notional Labour control in 2005, in the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections, the party gained their fourth constituency seat in Roxburgh and Berwickshire. The party would have notionally won 14 seats using AMS, giving them 20 seats, the 1997 wipe out and subsequent lack of movement has resulted in debate about how the party should change to revive its fortunes. Echoing their pre-1965 position, one suggestion has been to drop the name Conservative, however, the Strathclyde Commission ruled out a return to the Scottish Unionist Party name because of sensitivity to Northern Irish sectarian connotations

8.
Scottish Labour Party
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The Scottish Labour Party is the Scotland branch of the British Labour Party. Labour hold 23 of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and two of six Scottish seats in the European Parliament, after these, Scottish Labour entered a coalition with the Scottish Liberal Democrats, forming a majority Scottish Executive. It remained the second largest party after the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, in the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, Scottish Labour lost 13 of its 37 seats, becoming the third largest party for the first time after being surpassed by the Scottish Conservative Party. Kezia Dugdale is the directly elected Leader of the Scottish Labour Party, the Scottish Labour Party is administered by the Scottish Executive Committee, which is responsible to the Labour Partys National Executive Committee. The Scottish Executive Committee is made up of representatives of party members, elected members and party affiliates, for example, trade unions, the current Scottish general secretary is Brian Roy. His predecessor was Ian Price, who succeeded Colin Smyth in 2013, the Scottish Labour headquarters is currently at Bath Street, Glasgow. It was formerly co-located with the offices of Unite the Union at John Smith House,145 West Regent Street, the party holds an annual conference during February/March each year. In 2008, Scottish Labour Party membership was reported as 17,000, in September 2010, the party issued 13,135 ballot papers to party members during the Labour Party leadership election. These did not necessarily equate to 13,135 individual members – due to the electoral structure. The party has declined to reveal its membership figures since 2008, in November 2014 the partys membership was claimed by an unnamed source reported in the Sunday Herald to be 13,500. Other recent reports in the media have quoted figures of as low as 8,000, in December 2014 the newly elected leader Jim Murphy claimed that the figure was about 20,000 on the TV programme Scotland Tonight. According to the accounts it submitted to the Electoral Commission the party had an income from membership of £115,636 in 2013, the Labour Party campaigned for the creation of a devolved Scottish Parliament as part of its wider policy of a devolved United Kingdom. Donald Dewar led Labours campaign for the first elections to the Scottish Parliament on 6 May 1999, Labour won the most votes and seats, with 56 seats out of 129, a clear distance ahead of the second-placed Scottish National Party. Labour also won 53 of the 73 constituency seats, Dewar became the inaugural First Minister of Scotland. Dewar died only a year later on 11 October 2000, a new first minister was elected in a ballot by Scottish Labours MSPs and national executive members, because there was insufficient time to hold a full leadership election. On 27 October, Henry McLeish was elected to succeed Dewar, Labours dominance of Scotlands Westminster seats continued in the 2001 general election, with a small loss of votes but no losses of seats. The press called the affair Officegate, after McLeishs resignation, Jack McConnell quickly emerged as the only candidate, and was elected First Minister by the Parliament on 22 November 2001. The coalition between Labour and the Liberal Democrats was narrowly re-elected at the 2003 Scottish Parliament election, with Labour losing 7 seats, the SNP also lost seats, though other pro-independence parties made gains

9.
Scottish National Party leadership election, 2014
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There was a Scottish National Party leadership election to choose the new leader of the Scottish National Party at the SNPs conference on 14–15 November 2014. Nicola Sturgeon was elected unopposed as the new leader of the SNP, SNP depute leader and Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was widely tipped as the favourite to succeed Salmond after the election. She was backed by a number of Scottish government ministers, including Alex Neil and Humza Yousaf, Sturgeon officially launched her campaign bid to succeed Salmond on 24 September 2014. On launching her bid, Sturgeon highlighted in a confident speech that she is the best person for the job and wants to serve my party, on 15 October 2014, the SNP confirmed that Nicola Sturgeon was the only candidate for leadership, and therefore de facto leader-in-waiting. It had been obvious even before then that no one else would garner enough nominations to make a bid for the post. She was formally acclaimed as the partys first female leader at the SNP Autumn Conference on 14 November 2014, given the SNPs absolute majority in the Scottish Parliament, this all but assured that Sturgeon would become First Minister. As expected, she was elected as First Minister on 19 November 2014. Three people, Angela Constance, Keith Brown and Stewart Hosie launched bids to succeed Sturgeon as SNP Depute Leader, Constance said that she would not seek to become Deputy First Minister to Sturgeon, even if she was elected Depute Leader. The results were announced at the conference, with Hosie polling 42. 2%, Brown on 34. 2%, in the second round, Hosie was elected after getting 55. 5% of votes following the elimination of Constance. The Depute Leadership election had a turnout of 55. 7%

10.
Patrick Harvie
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Patrick Harvie is the co-convener of the Scottish Green Party and Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Glasgow region. He was first elected in the 2003 election and was re-elected in 2007,2011 and 2016, Harvie went to Dumbarton Academy between 1984–1991, and attended Manchester Metropolitan University where he was briefly a member of the Labour party. Although this work was concerned with HIV prevention, it also involved Harvie in equality campaigning. During this period, he was active in the campaign to repeal Section 2A of the Local Government Act and this campaign was successful, and Harvie has stated that the experience prompted him to become more actively involved in politics, leading to his joining the Scottish Green Party. Quickly after becoming an MSP he caused controversy by proposing civil partnership legislation in the Scottish Parliament. In 2004 Harvie was given the One to Watch award at the annual Scottish Politician of the Year event, in addition to the Communities portfolio, Harvie covered the Justice portfolio for the Greens, and has been active on a number of civil liberties issues. He has also been convener of the Cross Party Group on Human Rights, following the Green Partys disappointing performance in the 2007 election, Harvie was returned with a reduced share of the vote. The tight parliamentary arithmetic and a relationship with the Scottish National Party led to a Co-operation Agreement between the two parties. Under this, Harvie was nominated to convene the Transport, Infrastructure and he is a board member of the Glasgay. From 2003 till 2007, Harvie wrote a column in the Scottish edition of the Big Issue. He is bisexual, and is the first openly bisexual party leader in Scotland and he was also a candidate in the election for Rector of the University of Glasgow in February 2008. Harvie is an advocate of Open Source and Free Software, and his use of Twitter during an important political dinner drew much media comment. Patrick Harvie MSP profile at Scottish Green Party Scottish Parliament profile

11.
Maggie Chapman
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Maggie Chapman is a Scottish politician who is the co-convenor of the Scottish Green Party. Chapman is the Rector of the University of Aberdeen, having been elected in 2014, Chapman was born in 1979 in Rhodesia. Her family had moved from South Africa to Rhodesia in 1978 for her father to take up the post of director at the college of music and she grew up there, educated at a mixed-race school, with the country having achieved independence while she was an infant. Her mother was a nurse who worked as a theatre sister, Chapman moved to Scotland to study Zoology at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 2001. She went on to complete a Masters degree in Environmental Management at the University of Stirling in 2003, as a student she had been an activist for Edinburgh University Students Association. Chapman has worked in the west of Scotland in Environmental Management, until June 2015 she was a lecturer in cultural geography, environmental ethics and social justice at Edinburgh Napier University. She retains a role in teaching through her support for the Educational Institute of Scotland, in mid-2015 she took up a post at the Muslim Womens Resource Centre in Dundee. Chapman was first elected as a councillor for the Leith Walk ward in the City of Edinburgh Council election,2007, later that year she became the first ever convener of the councils Petitions Committee. During her time as a councillor, Chapman has advocated for causes that include, the wage, participatory budgeting, better private tenancy rights. She has also organised and voted against the privatisation of council services, in June 2015, she announced she was standing down as a councillor, to concentrate on the Scottish Parliament election that was to be held in May 2016. She was selected as the lead candidate for the North East region. In November 2013, she was elected unopposed as the Scottish Greens female co-convenor, two years later she saw off a challenge by Zara Kitson and was re-elected to the position, after a monthlong ballot of the partys 9,000 members. Chapman was the lead candidate in the European Parliament election,2014 for the Scotland constituency. Chapman is a socialist, environmentalist, anti-cuts activist, peace activist and feminist and she has been active in a number of political campaigns, including the Radical Independence Campaign. In September 2014, Chapman became a member of the Smith Commission into further devolution for the Scottish Parliament, in November 2014, she was elected as Rector of the University of Aberdeen after a vote by the student body of the University. She was installed as rector at a ceremony in March 2015 and her father, Neil Chapman, was a professional classical musician. She is also a citizen of South Africa and she plays the fiddle and enjoys exploring Scotland. Maggie Chapmans blog Green councillors at Scottish Green Party

12.
Willie Rennie
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William Cowan Rennie is a Scottish politician and current Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats after he succeeded the post in May 2011. After college, Rennie spent most of his career as a Liberal Democrat election campaigner. He became the Member of Parliament for Dunfermline and West Fife after a win in February 2006. He later lost this seat to Labour in the May 2010 UK general election and he briefly served as a Special Government Adviser for the Liberal Democrat Scottish Secretaries of State Danny Alexander MP and Michael Moore MP at the Scotland Office. He was then elected to the Scottish Parliament in the May 2011 election, despite the overall collapse of the party in the election, he was elected as an additional member for the Mid Scotland and Fife region. He was soon after elected unopposed as leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, since the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, Rennie has held the constituency seat of North East Fife. Rennie was born in Fife and grew up in Strathmiglo, where his family ran the village shop and his mother was secretary of the local community association and his grandfather was the local Minister. Rennie went to Bell Baxter High School in Cupar, Fife, before going to Paisley College of Technology, after that, he received a Diploma in Industrial Administration at Glasgow College. Rennie lives in Kelty with his wife Janet and their two sons, Alexander and Stephen and he is a keen runner and is a member of Dunfermlines Carnegie Harriers. He was also runner-up in the 2006 Scottish Coal-Carrying Championships held in Kelty, Rennie was one of the 50 MPs who ran a mile to raise money for Sport Relief finishing close behind the winner, David Davies. While a student at the Paisley College of Technology he was president of the student union. Rennie ran the Scottish Young Liberal Democrats and after went on to work for the English Liberal Democrats in Cornwall. He then went on to work for the Liberal Democrats campaigns department, in the House of Commons, he was a member of the Liberal Democrat shadow defence team, chair of their parliamentary campaigns unit, and a member of the Commons Defence Select Committee. In the General Election of 6 May 2010, Rennie lost his seat to the Labour candidate Thomas Docherty and he was then for a time Special Adviser to the new Liberal Democrat Scottish Secretary Michael Moore MP. He was the only new Liberal Democrat MSP to win a seat in this election, after the resignation of the Scottish Liberal Democratss leader Tavish Scott, Willie Rennie stood in the resulting leadership election. He was the candidate to be nominated, and was declared elected when the nominations closed on 17 May. He vowed to stand up to the SNP bulldozer majority, in the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, the Liberal Democrats again elected five MSPs, while gaining two constituency seats and holding their existing two with increased majorities. Rennie was elected in North East Fife, gaining it from the SNP with a 9. 5% swing, Willie Rennie was appointed as an honorary patron of Armed Forces Legal Action in April 2014

13.
Scottish Green Party
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The Scottish Green Party is a green political party in Scotland. The party has six MSPs in the Scottish Parliament as of 2016, the party also have twelve councillors in 5 of the 32 Scottish local councils. The Scottish Green Party was created in 1990 when the former Green Party split into separate, independent parties, for Scotland, Northern Ireland, the party is affiliated to the Global Greens and the European Green Party. Party membership increased dramatically following the Scottish independence referendum, as of May 2016, the Scottish Green Party has become the fourth biggest party by membership in Scotland, overtaking the Scottish Liberal Democrats. It is a member of the European Green Party. The party currently has six MSPs and fourteen councillors, at the 2005 Westminster election, the party contested 19 seats and polled 25,760 votes, they returned no MPs. Its highest share of the vote was 7. 7% of the vote in Glasgow North, in the European Parliament election of 2004, it polled 6. 8% of the vote and did not return any MEPs. The party lost five of their seven seats in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, within days of the Scottish Independence referendum being held, the membership swelled to more than 5,000. Launching its manifesto for the 2015 General Election, the Scottish Green Party stated a membership of over 8,500, by October 2015 the party were holding their biggest ever conference, with their membership standing at more than 9,000. The party is made up of branches, who cover a geographical area. The Scottish Green Party originated as the Scottish branch of the Ecology Party, the Ecology Party became the UK Green Party and it remained a constituent party until 1990, when the Scottish Green Party became a separate entity. The Scottish Green Party benefits from the fact that the British government created a Scottish Parliament, on 1 May 2003 the Scottish Greens added six new MSPs to their previous total. In the 2007 elections, the Party lost five seats in Holyrood, on 11 May, the Greens signed an agreement with the Scottish National Party, which meant that the Greens voted for Alex Salmond as First Minister and supported his initial Ministerial appointments. In return, the Nationalists backed a climate change bill as an early measure, the SNP also agreed to nominate Patrick Harvie, one of the Green MSPs, to convene one of the Holyrood committees, Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change. On 28 January 2009, the two Green MSPs were instrumental in the defeat of the Governments budget, though a slightly amended version was passed easily the following week. On 31 May, Cllr Martin Ford, formerly a Liberal Democrat, on 13 October 2009, he was joined by fellow former Liberal Democrat Cllr Debra Storr. Both Councillors continued to serve on Aberdeenshire Council as members of the Democratic Independent group, at the 2012 Scottish local elections Councillor Debra Storr stood down to concentrate on her professional career. Councillor Martin Ford was re-elected, this time standing as a Scottish Green Party candidate, after the Scottish Government announced the referendum on Scottish independence, a campaign group called Yes Scotland was established to promote a vote for independence

14.
Scottish Liberal Democrats
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The Scottish Liberal Democrats is a liberal and social-liberal political party in Scotland. The Scottish Liberal Democrats hold 5 of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 1 of 59 Scottish seats in the UK Parliament. The Scottish Liberal Democrats are one of the three state parties within the federal Liberal Democrats, the others being the Welsh Liberal Democrats, the Liberal Democrats do not contest elections in Northern Ireland. Local parties are responsible for the partys political campaigning and for selecting candidates for parliamentary. There are also eight regional parties, the partys headquarters are located at 4 Clifton Terrace, Edinburgh. The conference is the highest decision-making body of the party on both policy and strategic issues, see below for the current office-bearers and all other members of the Partys three management committees. All party members vote every two years in elections to elect people to all the below positions, except Leader & Depute Leader. Vice-Convener, Policy, Isobel Davidson Policy Committee Members, Jacquie Bell, Ewan Hoyle, Barbara Mills, Euan Robson, vice-Convener, Conference, Jenni Lang Conference Committee Members, Graeme Cowie, David Green, Callum Leslie, Sandy Leslie, Paul McGarry, Ross Stalker. Vice-Convener, Campaigns & Candidates, Alan Reid Treasurer, Caron Lindsay The party employs a team of staff at their HQ in Edinburgh. Associated organisations generally seek to influence the direction of the party on an issue or represent a section of the party membership. Following the Local Council Election of May 2012, under the Single Transferable Vote system,71 Liberal Democrats were elected, a voluntary Executive Committee meets several times a year to run the organisation. The party campaigned for the creation of a devolved Scottish Parliament as part of its policy of a federal United Kingdom. In the first elections to the Scottish Parliament in 1999, the party won 17 seats, following this, the party formed a coalition government with the Scottish Labour Party in the Scottish Executive. The then party leader, Jim Wallace, became Deputy First Minister of Scotland and this partnership was renewed in 2003 and Wallace became Deputy First Minister and Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning. On 23 June 2005, Nicol Stephen MSP succeeded Wallace as party leader, prior to the partnership government being formed in 1999, the UK had only limited experience of coalition government. The partys participation attracted criticism for involving compromises to its preferred policies and this experience led to some criticism of the partys election strategy and its leader. On 2 July 2008, Nicol Stephen resigned as the party leader, at the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections, the party lost all its mainland constituencies, retaining only the two constituencies of Orkney and Shetland. It also secured three List MSPs and this was by far the partys worst electoral performance since the re-establishment of a Scottish parliament in 1999

15.
Glasgow (Scottish Parliament electoral region)
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Glasgow is one of the eight electoral regions of the Scottish Parliament. Nine of the parliaments 73 first past the post constituencies are sub-divisions of the region, thus it elects a total of 16 MSPs. As a result of the First Periodic Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries the boundaries of the region, in terms of first past the post constituencies the region included, The constituencies were created with the names and boundaries of Westminster constituencies, as existing in 1999. Scottish Westminster constituencies were replaced with new constituencies in 2005. Nine of the constituencies are entirely within the Glasgow City council area, the Rutherglen constituency includes a north-eastern area of the South Lanarkshire council area. Also, although central with respect to the region and entirely within the city area, Shettleston is in the south-east of the city area, the South Lanarkshire area is otherwise divided between the Central Scotland and South of Scotland regions. Council areas are as defined in 1996, and may be subject to change after the next Scottish Parliament election, N. B. Ahmad died in February 2009 and McLaughlin was next on the Scottish National Partys list. At the subsequent Glasgow Cathcart by-election held 29 September 2005, Charlie Gordon held the seat for Labour, changes, Tommy Sheridan resigned from the Scottish Socialist Party in September 2006 and sat as a member of Solidarity. At the subsequent Glasgow Anniesland by-election on 23 November 2000, Bill Butler held the seat for Labour, Glasgow Politics of Glasgow South Lanarkshire Renfrewshire

16.
North East Fife (Scottish Parliament constituency)
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North East Fife is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election, the region covers all of the Clackmannanshire council area, all of the Fife council area, all of the Perth and Kinross council area and all of the Stirling council area. Fife is represented in the Scottish Parliament by five constituencies, Cowdenbeath, Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, Mid Fife and Glenrothes, the constituency was created at the same time as the Scottish Parliament, in 1999, with the name and boundaries of a pre-existing Westminster constituency. In 2005, however, Scottish Westminster constituencies were replaced with new constituencies. The Fife North East Westminster constituency was slightly enlarged

17.
First Minister of Scotland
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The First Minister of Scotland is the leader of the Scottish Government. The First Minister chairs the Scottish Cabinet and is responsible for the formulation, development. The First Minister is a Member of the Scottish Parliament and nominated by the Scottish Parliament before being appointed by the monarch. Members of the Cabinet and junior ministers of the Scottish Government as well as the Scottish law officers, are appointed by the First Minister. As head of the Scottish Government, the First Minister is directly accountable to the Scottish Parliament for their actions, nicola Sturgeon of the Scottish National Party is the current First Minister of Scotland. The process was known as devolution and was initiated to give Scotland some measure of home rule or self-governance in its affairs, such as health, education. The Secretary of State was a member of the British Cabinet, since 1999, the Secretary of State has a much reduced role as a result of the transfer of responsibilities to the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government. The First Minister is nominated by the Scottish Parliament from among its members at the beginning of each term and he or she is then formally appointed by the monarch. In theory, any member of the Scottish Parliament can be nominated for First Minister, however, the government must be answerable to, and acceptable to, the Scottish Parliament to gain supply. For this reason, the First Minister is almost always the leader of the largest party, there is no term of office for a First Minister, he or she holds office at Her Majestys pleasure. In practice, he or she holds office as long as he or she retains the confidence of the chamber, given the additional member system used to elect its members, it is difficult for a single party to gain an overall majority of seats in the Scottish Parliament. The SNP gained a majority of seats in the 2011 election. After the election of the Scottish Parliament, a First Minister must be nominated within a period of 28 days. Under the terms of the Scotland Act, if the Parliament fails to nominate a First Minister, within this frame, it will be dissolved. If an incumbent First Minister is defeated in a general election, the First Minister only leaves office when the Scottish Parliament nominates a successor individual. After accepting office, the First Minister takes the Official Oath, the oath is tendered by the Lord President of the Court of Session at a sitting of the Court in Parliament House in Edinburgh. The oath is, I, do swear that I will well and truly serve Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in the office of First Minister, the period in office of a First Minister is not linked to the term of Members of the Scottish Parliament. The Scotland Act set out a maximum term for each session of Parliament

18.
Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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It describes itself as a centre-right political party. It is the second largest party in the devolved Scottish Parliament, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives is Ruth Davidson MSP, who has held the post since 2011. The modern Scottish Conservative Party was established in 1965 with the merger of the Unionist Party into the Conservative Party of England and they had also achieved a majority of the vote 24 years earlier in the 1931 general election with 54. 4%. The party has returned a single MP from Scotland in the 2001,2005,2010 and 2015 Westminster elections and they currently control 31 of the 129 seats, with 24 of these seats won through the additional member system. The party has one of the six Scottish seats in the European Parliament, in 2012, the Scottish Conservatives had 11,000 members. As of May 2016, the party is the second largest in the Scottish Parliament following a gain of 16 seats in the Holyrood Elections. Electoral defeat in the 1959 general election led to the reforms of 1965 and it was renamed the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party and constitutionally came under the control of the UK party. These, and further reforms in 1977, saw the Scottish Conservatives being viewed as a unit, with its personnel, finance. These changes had serious implications for the Conservatives Scottish identity and this may seem paradoxical, but the Unionist Party had benefited greatly from its projection as an independent Scottish party opposing the London-based British Labour Party. These elections witnessed the rise of the SDP-Liberal Alliance, which ate into traditional Unionist Party vote, along with increased support for Labour and SNP in 1987. At the 1987 General Election, the Conservatives had their number of Scottish seats lowered from 21 to 10, by then advocating the introduction of the poll tax a year early in Scotland they further exacerbated the image of being anti-Scottish. Ironically the Scottish Conservatives had been amongst the fiercest advocates of introducing the poll tax to replace the system of local government rates and it was the first time in almost 180 years that a centre-right party had been completely shut out in Scotland. It was the establishment of a Scottish Parliament, an institution they had opposed vehemently, however, this was only because of the Parliaments proportional representation electoral system, and the level of national support they received in 1999 and 2003 hardly moved. Following their by-election victory, the Conservatives managed to pick up three seats in 2003, Edinburgh Pentlands, Galloway and Upper Nithsdale and Ayr. In subsequent Westminster elections, their vote has been equally sluggish, with a rearrangement of parliamentary constituencies in 2005 the sitting Conservative MP in Galloway and Upper Nithsdale subsequently lost against Labour in the 2005 election in a redrawn seat. However the party did gain the Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale seat from notional Labour control in 2005, in the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections, the party gained their fourth constituency seat in Roxburgh and Berwickshire. The party would have notionally won 14 seats using AMS, giving them 20 seats, the 1997 wipe out and subsequent lack of movement has resulted in debate about how the party should change to revive its fortunes. Echoing their pre-1965 position, one suggestion has been to drop the name Conservative, however, the Strathclyde Commission ruled out a return to the Scottish Unionist Party name because of sensitivity to Northern Irish sectarian connotations

19.
Scotland Act 1998
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The Scotland Act 1998 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is the Act which established the devolved Scottish Parliament, the Act was amended by Scottish Parliament Act 2004 Constitutional Reform Act 2005 Scotland Act 2012 Scotland Act 2016. The Act specifically declares the continued power of the UK Parliament to legislate in respect of Scotland, despite the re-branding, the Scottish Executive still uses the original description for a number of purposes. It consists of a First Minister and other Ministers appointed by the Queen with the approval of the Parliament, including the Lord Advocate, the Act sets out the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament. Rather than listing the matters over which the Scottish Parliament does control and it further designates a list of statutes which are not amenable to amendment or repeal by the Parliament which includes the Human Rights Act 1998 and many provisions of the Scotland Act itself. The same constraints apply to acts of the Scottish Executive, the Act also sets up mechanisms to resolve disputes over questions about legislative competence of the Parliament and powers of the Executive. The ultimate appeal in such matters lies to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and it also allows the powers of the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive to be adjusted over time by agreement between both Parliaments by means of an Order in Council. The Act was passed on 17 November 1998, and received royal assent two days later on 19 November, the first elections were held in May 1999 and the Scottish Parliament and Executive assumed their full powers on 1 July 1999. The Act was amended by the Scottish Parliament Act 2004 to end the link between the number of MPs at Westminster and the number of constituency MSPs and it was amended again in 2016 as a reaction to the 2014 Scottish Independence vote. Government of Wales Act 1998 Scottish referendum bill 2010 Kilbrandon Commission Walker, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Devolution, 1945–1979, Journal of British Studies Jan. Associated delegated legislation Scottish Parliament site Scottish Government site

20.
British monarchy
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The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom, its dependencies and its overseas territories. The monarchs title is King or Queen, the current monarch and head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, ascended the throne on the death of her father, King George VI, on 6 February 1952. The monarch and his or her immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial, diplomatic, as the monarchy is constitutional, the monarch is limited to non-partisan functions such as bestowing honours and appointing the Prime Minister. The monarch is, by tradition, commander-in-chief of the British Armed Forces, from 1603, when the Scottish monarch King James VI inherited the English throne as James I, both the English and Scottish kingdoms were ruled by a single sovereign. From 1649 to 1660, the tradition of monarchy was broken by the republican Commonwealth of England, the Act of Settlement 1701 excluded Roman Catholics, or those who married Catholics, from succession to the English throne. In 1707, the kingdoms of England and Scotland were merged to create the Kingdom of Great Britain, and in 1801, the British monarch became nominal head of the vast British Empire, which covered a quarter of the worlds surface at its greatest extent in 1921. After the Second World War, the vast majority of British colonies and territories became independent, George VI and his successor, Elizabeth II, adopted the title Head of the Commonwealth as a symbol of the free association of its independent member states. The United Kingdom and fifteen other Commonwealth monarchies that share the person as their monarch are called Commonwealth realms. In the uncodified Constitution of the United Kingdom, the Monarch is the Head of State, oaths of allegiance are made to the Queen and her lawful successors. God Save the Queen is the British national anthem, and the monarch appears on postage stamps, coins, the Monarch takes little direct part in Government. Executive power is exercised by Her Majestys Government, which comprises Ministers, primarily the Prime Minister and the Cabinet and they have the direction of the Armed Forces of the Crown, the Civil Service and other Crown Servants such as the Diplomatic and Secret Services. Judicial power is vested in the Judiciary, who by constitution, the Church of England, of which the Monarch is the head, has its own legislative, judicial and executive structures. Powers independent of government are legally granted to public bodies by statute or Statutory Instrument such as an Order in Council. The Sovereigns role as a monarch is largely limited to non-partisan functions. This role has been recognised since the 19th century, the constitutional writer Walter Bagehot identified the monarchy in 1867 as the dignified part rather than the efficient part of government. Whenever necessary, the Monarch is responsible for appointing a new Prime Minister, the Prime Minister takes office by attending the Monarch in private audience, and after kissing hands that appointment is immediately effective without any other formality or instrument. Since 1945, there have only been two hung parliaments, the first followed the February 1974 general election when Harold Wilson was appointed Prime Minister after Edward Heath resigned following his failure to form a coalition. Although Wilsons Labour Party did not have a majority, they were the largest party, the second followed the May 2010 general election, in which the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats agreed to form the first coalition government since World War II

21.
Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament
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The Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament is the speaker of the Scottish Parliament. The current Presiding Officer is Ken Macintosh, who was elected on 12 May 2016, the Presiding Officer is elected by the Members of the Scottish Parliament, by means of an exhaustive ballot, and also heads the Corporate Body of the Scottish Parliament. He or she is considered a figurehead of the institution, the Presiding Officer presides over the Parliaments debates, determining which members may speak. The Presiding Officer is also responsible for maintaining order during debate, the Presiding Officer is expected to be strictly non-partisan, with some similarities in this respect to the tradition of the Speaker of the British House of Commons. To be seen as impartial they renounce all affiliation with their political party when taking office. They also do not take part in debate, nor do they vote except to break ties, even then, the convention is that the speaker casts the tie-breaking vote in favour of the status quo. The Presiding Officer also remains a Member of the Scottish Parliament, the office of the Presiding Officer is located in Queensberry House. Presidency of the old Scots Parliament, Lord Chancellor of Scotland Lord High Commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland Presiding Officer Speaker Preses Official website

22.
Members of the Scottish Parliament
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Member of the Scottish Parliament is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament. Seven are elected from each of eight groups of constituencies. Candidates who succeed in being elected to a seat will then have their name removed from the regional list process. All MSP positions become vacant for elections held on a four-year cycle. The Scotland Act 1998 sets out that ordinary general elections for the Scottish Parliament are held on the first Thursday in May, a constituency vacancy may be filled by a by-election. An additional-member vacancy may be filled by the next candidate on the relevant party list. In the event that there is no next available person the vacancy will then remain and this situation occurred in April 2014 following the death of Margo MacDonald, independent MSP for the Lothian region. An MSP is known as Name MSP, for instance, Mike Russell can be entitled either Mike Russell MSP or Mìcheal Ruiseal BPA

23.
Royal proclamation
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A proclamation is an official declaration. In many British protectorates the high commissioner or administrator was empowered to legislate by proclamation, in the old system of real property law in England, fines, levied with proclamations, i. e. These proclamations were originally made sixteen times, four times in the term in which the fine was levied, afterwards the number of proclamations was reduced to one in each of the four terms. The proclamations were endorsed on the back of the record, the system was abolished by the Fines and Recoveries Act 1833. Introduction, Proclamations of Accession of English and British Sovereigns, Heraldica,2007

24.
Majority
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A majority is the greater part, or more than half, of the total. It is a subset of a set consisting of more than half of the sets elements, Majority can be used to specify the voting requirement, as in a majority vote. A majority vote is more than half of the votes cast, a majority can be compared to a plurality, which is a subset larger than any other subset considered. A plurality is not necessarily a majority as the largest subset considered may consist of less than half the sets elements and this can occur when there are three or more possible choices. In British English the term majority is also used to refer to the winning margin. Other related terms containing the majority have their own meanings. A majority is the part, or more than half. For example, say a group consists of 20 individuals, in this case, a majority would be 11 or more individuals. For this group, having 10 or fewer individuals would not constitute a majority, in parliamentary procedure, the term majority simply means more than half. As it relates to a vote, a majority vote is more than half of the votes cast, abstentions or blanks are excluded in calculating a majority vote. Also, the totals do not include votes cast by someone not entitled to vote or improper multiple votes by a single member, depending on the parliamentary authority used, there may be a difference in the total that is used to calculate a majority vote due to illegal votes. Illegal votes are votes which are cast for unidentifiable or ineligible candidates or choices, in this definition, illegal refers to the choices made on the ballot and does not refer to the persons who cast the votes. In Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised, illegal votes are counted as votes cast, in The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure, illegal votes are not included in the total and a majority vote is defined as being more than half of all eligible votes cast. The issue of illegal votes does not exist when only two options are possible, such as when a majority vote is required to adopt a proposal, in this context, a majority vote is more yes votes than no votes. A majority vote is not the same as a vote of a majority of the present or a vote of a majority of the entire membership. For example, assume that votes are cast for three people for an office, Alice, Bob, and Carol, in Scenario 1, Alice received a majority vote. There were 20 votes cast and Alice received more than half of them, in Scenario 2, assume all three candidates are eligible. In this case, no one received a majority vote and this example also illustrates that half the votes cast is not a majority vote

25.
Proportional representation
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Proportional representation characterizes electoral systems by which divisions in an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. If n% of the support an particular political party, then roughly n% of seats will be won by that party. The essence of such systems is that all votes contribute to the result, not just a plurality, or a bare majority, Proportional representation requires the use of multiple-member voting districts, it is not possible using single-member districts alone. In fact, the most proportional representation is achieved when just one super-district is used, the two most widely used families of PR voting systems are party list PR and single transferable vote. Mixed member proportional representation, also known as the Additional Member System, is a hybrid Mixed Electoral System that uses party list PR as its proportional component, with party list PR, political parties define candidate lists and voters vote for a list. The relative vote for each list determines how many candidates from each list are actually elected, lists can be closed or open, open lists allow voters to indicate individual candidate preferences and vote for independent candidates. Voting districts can be small or as large as a province or an entire nation, the single transferable vote uses small districts, with voters ranking individual candidates in order of preference. During the count, as candidates are elected or eliminated, surplus or discarded votes that would otherwise be wasted are transferred to other candidates according to the preferences, STV enables voters to vote across party lines and to elect independent candidates. Voters have two votes, one for their district and one for the party list, the party list vote determining the balance of the parties in the elected body. Biproportional apportionment, first used in Zurich in 2006, is a method for adjusting an elections result to achieve overall proportionality. Some form of representation is used for national lower house elections in 94 countries, party list PR. As with all systems, there are overlapping and contentious claims in terms of its advantages and disadvantages. But does it follow that the minority should have no representatives at all, is it necessary that the minority should not even be heard. Nothing but habit and old association can reconcile any reasonable being to the needless injustice, in a really equal democracy, every or any section would be represented, not disproportionately, but proportionately. A majority of the electors would always have a majority of the representatives, man for man, they would be as fully represented as the majority. Unless they are, there is not equal government, many academic political theorists agree with Mill, that in a representative democracy the representatives should represent all segments of society. The established parties in UK elections can win formal control of the parliament with as little as 35% of votes, in Canada, majority governments are regularly formed by parties with the support of under 40% of votes cast. Coupled with turnout levels in the electorate of less than 60%, in the 2005 general election, for example, the Labour Party under Tony Blair won a comfortable parliamentary majority with the votes of only 21. 6% of the total electorate

26.
Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions
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Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions were first used in 1999, in the first general election of the Scottish Parliament, created by the Scotland Act 1998. Each region is a group of constituencies, and the DHondt method of allocating additional member seats from party lists is used to produce a form of representation for each region. The total number of seats is 129. For lists of MSPs, see Member of the Scottish Parliament, the Arbuthnott Commission, in its final report, January 2006, recommended that council area boundaries and Holyrood and Scottish Westminster constituency boundaries should all be reviewed together. This recommendation has not been implemented,1999 boundaries were used also for the 2003 and 2007 elections. Total numbers of constituencies, regions, and MSPs remain at, respectively,73,8, and 129

27.
Plurality voting system
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The plurality voting system is a system in which each voter is allowed to vote for only one candidate, and the candidate who polls the most among their counterparts is elected. In a system based on single-member districts, it may be called first-past-the-post, single-choice voting, in a system based on multi-member districts, it may be referred to as winner-takes-all or bloc voting. The system is used to elect members of a legislative assembly or executive officers. It is the most common form of the system, and is used in Canada, the house in India, the United Kingdom. Plural voting is distinguished from a majority voting system, in which, to win, more votes than all other candidates combined. In some countries such as France a two-ballot or runoff election plurality system is used and this may require two rounds of voting. If on the first round no candidate receives over 50% of the votes, then a second round takes place and this ensures that the winner gains a majority of votes in the second round. Alternatively, all candidates above a threshold in the first round may compete in the second round. If there are more than two standing, then a plurality vote may decide the result. In political science, the use of the plurality voting system with multiple and this combination is also variously referred to as winner-takes-all to contrast it with proportional representation systems. This term is also used to refer to elections for multiple winners in a particular constituency using bloc voting. Plurality voting is particularly prevalent in the United Kingdom and former British colonies, including the United States, Canada and this makes the plurality voting system among the simplest of all voting systems for voters and vote counting officials. Under the plurality system, the winner of the election becomes the representative of the entire electoral district. In an election for a seat, such as for president in a presidential system, the same style of ballot is used. In the two-round voting system, usually the two highest polling candidates in the first ballot progress to the second round Run-off ballot, in a multiple member plurality election, with n seats available, the winners are the n candidates with the highest numbers of votes. The rules may allow the voter to vote for one candidate, or for up to n candidates, generally plurality ballots can be categorized into two forms. The simplest form is a ballot where the name of a candidate is written in by hand. A more structured ballot will list all the candidates and allow a mark to be next to the name of a single candidate

28.
First past the post
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First-past-the-post voting method is one of several plurality voting methods. It is a common, but not universal, feature of voting methods with single-member electoral divisions, the method is widely used in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and most of their current and former colonies and protectorates, and a few other countries. There is some confusion between highest vote, majority vote and plurality voting methods, all three use a first-past-the-post voting method, but there are subtle differences in the method of execution. First-past-the-post voting is used in two-round systems and some exhaustive ballots. First-past-the-post voting methods can be used for single- and multiple-member electoral divisions, in a single-member election, the candidate with the highest number – not necessarily a majority – of votes is elected. The two-round voting method uses a first-past-the-post voting method in each of the two rounds, the first round determines which two candidates will progress to the second, final-round ballot. In a multiple-member, first-past-the-post ballot, the first number of candidates – in order of highest vote, if there are six vacancies, then the first six candidates with the highest vote are elected. The Electoral Reform Society is a pressure group based in the United Kingdom which advocates abolishing the first-past-the-post method for all national and local elections. It argues FPTP is bad for voters, bad for government and it is the oldest organisation concerned with electoral methods in the world. States other than Maine and Nebraska use a form of simple plurality, first-past-the-post voting. Under a first-past-the-post voting method the highest polling candidate is elected, in this real-life example, Tony Tan obtained a greater number than the other candidates, and so was declared the winner, even though majority of voters did not vote for him. It is more likely that a party will hold a majority of legislative seats. In the United Kingdom,18 out of 23 general elections since 1922 have produced a single-party majority government. For example, the 2005 United Kingdom general election results in Great Britain are as follows, It can be seen that Labour took a majority of seats, 57%, the largest two parties took 69% of votes and 88% of seats. Meanwhile, the smaller Liberal Democrat party took more than a fifth of votes, another example would be the UK General Election held on 7 May 2015, Here, the Conservatives took 51% of the seats with only 37% of the vote. It should be noted that the Liberal Democrats also suffered under first-past-the-post, the benefits of FPTP are that its concept is very easy to understand, and ballots can be easily counted and processed. Alternative methods such as rank-based voting require far more work or processing power to tabulate results than a single choice, supporters of FPTP argue that it is the electoral method providing the best governance. It trades fairness in representation for more responsible government and its tendency to produce majority rule allows the government to pursue a consistent strategy for its term in office and to make decisions that may be both correct and unpopular

29.
Mixed member proportional representation
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Mixed-member proportional representation is a hybrid two-tier voting system. MMP was originally used to elect representatives to the German Bundestag and it was used in Romania, in the 2008 and 2012 legislative elections. MMP is a method that uses party list proportional representation as its proportional component. It is considered a system, which is a distinct voting system. An electoral system is mixed if more than one formula is employed to distribute legislative seats, biproportional apportionment, first used in Zürich in 2006, is a hybrid method for adjusting an elections result to achieve overall proportionality. In Germany, where it is used on the level and on most state levels. In the United Kingdom such systems used in Scotland, Wales, in the Canadian province of Quebec, where an MMP model was studied in 2007, it is called the compensatory mixed-member voting system. In most models the voter two votes, one for a constituency representative and one for a party. In the original variant used in Germany, both votes were combined into one, so voting for a representative automatically meant also voting for the representatives party. Most of Germany changed to the variant to make local MPs more personally accountable. Voters can vote for the person they prefer for local MP without regard for party affiliation. In the 2005 New Zealand election, 20% of local MPs were elected from electorates which gave a different party a plurality of votes, in each constituency, the representative is chosen using a single winner method, typically first-past-the-post. Most systems used closed party lists to elect the non-constituency MPs, depending on the jurisdiction, candidates may stand for both a constituency and on a party list, or may be restricted to contend either for a constituency or for a party list, but not both. If a candidate is on the party list, but wins a constituency seat, in Bavaria the second vote is not simply for the party but for one of the candidates on the partys regional list, Bavaria uses seven regions for this purpose. A regional open-list method was recommended for the United Kingdom by the Jenkins Commission. This can be done by the largest remainder method or a highest averages method, subtracted from each partys allocation is the number of constituency seats that party won, so that the additional seats are compensatory. If a party wins more FPTP seats than the proportional quota received by the party-list vote, in most German states, but not federally until the federal election of 2013, balance seats are added to compensate for the overhang seats and achieve complete proportionality. In the last election in Scotland, the highest averages method resulted in a majority government for the Scottish National Party with only 44% of the party vote, however, Scotland uses the term Additional Member System which, like MMP can either be proportional or semi-proportional

30.
Scottish Parliament election, 2011
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The 2011 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday,5 May 2011 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish National Party won 69 seats, the most the party has held at either a Holyrood or Westminster election. The SNP gained 32 constituencies, twenty two from the Scottish Labour Party, nine from the Scottish Liberal Democrats and one from the Scottish Conservatives. Such was the scale of their gains that, of the 73 constituencies in Scotland and they did, however, remain the largest opposition party. Party leader Iain Gray announced his resignation following his partys disappointing result, the Scottish Liberal Democrats were soundly defeated, their popular vote share was cut in half and their seat total reduced from 17 to 5. Tavish Scott announced his resignation as party leader shortly after the election, during the campaign, the four main party leaders engaged in a series of televised debates, as they had in every previous general election. These key debates were held on 29 March,1 May, the results of the election were broadcast live on BBC Scotland and STV, on the night of the election. Under the Scotland Act 1998, a general election to the Scottish Parliament was held on the first Thursday in May four years after the 2007 election. This policy decision was contradicted, however, by the staging of the Alternative Vote referendum on 5 May 2011 as well, Labour MP Ian Davidson expressed opposition to the referendum being staged on the same date as other elections. Scottish Secretary Michael Moore stated that having the referendum on another date would cost an additional £17 million, british, Irish, Commonwealth and European Union citizens living in Scotland who were aged 18 or over on election day were entitled to vote. The deadline to register to vote in the election was midnight on Friday 15 April 2011, the table below shows the notional figures for seats won by each party at the last election. The Conservatives have been the biggest gainers as a result of the changes, winning an extra 3 seats and Labour has lost the most seats. The total number of Members of the Scottish Parliament elected to the Parliament is 129, the First Periodical Review of the Scottish Parliaments constituencies and regions by the Boundary Commission for Scotland was announced on 3 July 2007. The Commission published its proposals for the regional boundaries in 2009. The Scottish Parliament uses an Additional Members System, designed to produce approximate proportional representation for each region, there are 8 regions each sub-divided into smaller constituencies. There are a total of 73 constituencies, each constituency elects one by the plurality system of election. Each region elects seven additional member MSPs using an additional member system, a modified DHondt method, using the constituency results, is used to calculate which additional member MSPs the regions elect. The recommendations can be summarised below, Glasgow was reduced from 10 constituency seats to 9, Glasgow Govan was largely replaced by Glasgow Southside

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Boundary Commission for Scotland
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The Speaker of the House of Commons is ex officio chairman of each of the boundary commissions. The Speaker however does not play any part in proceedings, with a boundary commission having a Justice being appointed as Deputy Chairman Commissioner. The commissions are currently established under the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986, most recently amended by the Parliamentary Voting System and they were first established as permanent bodies under the House of Commons Act 1944. The 1944 Act was amended in 1947 and then replaced by the House of Commons Act 1949, the 1949 Act was amended in 1958 and 1979 and replaced by the 1986 Act, changes in legislation from 1944 to 1986 were generally incremental in nature. The 2011 Act under the Con-LibDem coalition government made substantial changes to the legislation governing constituency boundary reviews, the Sixth Review would have resulted in 600 constituencies for the United Kingdom Parliament, a reduction from the 650 constituencies in existence at the General Election of 2010. The number of constituencies in each of the four home nations is calculated in proportion to the using a formula set out by legislation. For the Sixth Review, the formula specified 502 constituencies in England,16 constituencies in Northern Ireland,52 constituencies in Scotland, each Commission is required by law to conduct subsequent reviews of all constituencies in its respective part of the United Kingdom at least every five years. The boundary commissions are required to apply a set series of rules when devising constituencies, firstly, each proposed constituency has to comply with two numerical limits, the electorate of each constituency must be within 5% of the United Kingdom electoral quota. The area of a constituency must be no more than 13,000 square kilometres and it is evident that the other factors can to an extent be mutually contradictory, and therefore each commission has discretion on how it applies them. In so doing, each commission aims for a consistent approach within a review and it has been normal practice for local government electoral wards to be used as building blocks for constituencies, although there is no legislative requirement to do so. The law specifies that the electorate used during a review is the electorate at the time of the start of the review. Customarily, each conducted a complete review of all constituencies in its part of the United Kingdom every eight to twelve years. In between these general reviews, the commissions were able to conduct reviews of part of their area of responsibility. The interim reviews usually did not yield drastic changes in boundaries, the most recent general review in Scotland was given effect in 2005, and the resulting constituencies were used in the May 2005 general election. Under the previous rules, the number of constituencies in Great Britain had to not be greater or less than 613. The City of London was not to be partitioned and was to be included in a seat that referred to it by name, the Orkney and Shetland Islands were not to be combined with any other areas. Northern Ireland had to have 16-18 constituencies, at the 2010 general election there were 533 constituencies in England,40 constituencies in Wales,59 constituencies in Scotland and 18 constituencies in Northern Ireland providing a total of 650. The boundary commissions are also responsible for reviews of boundaries for devolved parliaments, the procedure for reviews of constituencies and regions for the Scottish Parliament is set down by the Scotland Act 1998

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Scottish Westminster constituencies
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Constituency boundaries have changed on various occasions, and are now subject to both periodical and ad hoc reviews of the Boundary Commission for Scotland. Since 1950 each Scottish constituency has been either a burgh constituency or a county constituency, defined by geographic boundaries, more historically there have been university constituencies and constituencies representing two or three parliamentary seats. Scottish local government counties and burghs were abolished in 1975, a burgh constituency is now one with a predominantly urban electorate, and a county constituency is one with more than a token rural electorate. Counties and burghs were replaced with regions and districts and unitary islands council areas. The history of constituency boundaries can be divided into distinct periods, as below. Westminster was previously the meeting place for the Parliament of England, Scottish Westminster constituencies were first used in the 1708 general election. Prior to that election Scotland was represented in the new parliament by MPs who were co-opted as commissioners of the former Parliament of Scotland, in the Parliament of Great Britain, Scotland had 15 burgh constituencies and 33 county constituencies, with each representing a seat for one MP. The county constituencies included, however, three pairs of alternating constituencies, so only one member of a pair was represented at any one time. Therefore, Scotland had more constituencies than seats, with the exception of Edinburgh, the burgh constituencies consisted of districts of burghs. 1708 boundaries were used for all subsequent elections of the Parliament of Great Britain, the creation of the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1801 was a merger of the Parliament of Ireland with the Parliament of Great Britain. The first general election of new parliament was the general election of 1802. 1802 boundaries were used also in the elections of 1806,1807,1812,1818,1820,1826,1830 and 1831. For the 1832 general election, Scottish Westminster constituencies were redefined by the Representation of the People Act 1832, as a result of the legislation, there were 21 burgh constituencies and 30 county constituencies. Except for Edinburgh and Glasgow, which were two-seat constituencies, each Scottish constituency represented a seat for one MP, therefore, Scotland had 53 parliamentary seats. The constituencies related nominally to counties and burghs, but boundaries for parliamentary purposes were not necessarily those for other purposes,14 of the burgh constituencies were districts of burghs. 1832 boundaries were used also in the elections of 1835,1837,1841,1847,1852,1857,1859 and 1865. For the 1868 general election Scottish Westminster constituencies were redefined by the Representation of the People Act 1868, as a result of the legislation, Scotland had 22 burgh constituencies,32 county constituencies and two university constituencies. Except for Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow, each Scottish constituency represented a seat for one MP, Edinburgh and Dundee represented two seats each, and Glasgow represented three seats

33.
United Kingdom general election, 2005
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The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday,5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party led by Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, as of 2017, it remains the last Labour general election victory in the UK. The Labour campaign emphasised a strong economy, however, Blair had suffered a decline in popularity even before the decision to send British troops to invade Iraq in 2003. The Liberal Democrats, led by Charles Kennedy, were opposed to the Iraq War given that there had no second UN resolution. Tony Blair was returned as Prime Minister, with Labour having 355 MPs but with a vote of 35. 2%. In terms of votes they were only ahead of the Conservatives. The Liberal Democrats saw their vote increase by 3. 7% and won the most seats for any third party since 1923. The more hardline Democratic Unionist Party became the largest Northern Irish party, the election results were broadcast live on the BBC, and presented by Peter Snow, David Dimbleby, Jeremy Paxman and Andrew Marr. The governing Labour Party, led by Tony Blair, was looking to secure a consecutive term in office. The Conservative Party was seeking to regain seats lost to both Labour and the Liberal Democrats since the 1992 general election, and move from being the Official Opposition into government. The Liberal Democrats hoped to make gains from both parties, but especially the Conservative Party, with a decapitation strategy targeting members of the Shadow Cabinet. The pro-independence Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru stood candidates in every constituency in Scotland, many seats were contested by other parties, including several parties without incumbents in the House of Commons. The Health Concern party also stood again, a full list of parties which declared their intention to run can be found on the list of parties contesting the 2005 general election. All parties campaigned using such tools as party manifestos, party political broadcasts, local elections in parts of England and in Northern Ireland were held on the same day. The polls were open for fifteen hours, from 07,00 to 22,00 BST, the election came just over three weeks after the dissolution of Parliament on 11 April by Queen Elizabeth II, at the request of the Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Following the death of Pope John Paul II on 2 April, thanks to eight years of sustained economic growth Labour could point to a strong economy, with greater investment in public services such as education and health. This was overshadowed, however, by the issue of the controversial 2003 invasion of Iraq, which met widespread public criticism at the time, and would dog Blair throughout the campaign. The Chancellor, Gordon Brown, played a prominent role in the campaign, frequently appearing with Tony Blair

34.
Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004
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The Scottish Parliament Act 2004 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that amends the Scotland Act 1998 which established the Scottish Parliament. There are currently 73 constituency Members of the Scottish Parliament and 56 regional additional-member MSPs, the Scotland Act also provided that the Boundary Commission for Scotland when reviewing the Westminster constituencies should use the same electoral quota as used in England. This has reduced the number of Scottish Westminster constituencies from 72 to 59, the majority of respondents supported retaining the present size of the Parliament, as is now provided for by this Act

Scotland
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the

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Edinburgh Castle. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of this early settlement is unclear.

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Flag

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The class I Pictish stone at Aberlemno known as Aberlemno 1 or the Serpent Stone.

Scottish Parliament election, 2016
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The 2016 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 5 May 2016 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the general election since the parliament was established in 1999. It was the first parliamentary election in Scotland in which 16 and 17 year olds were able to vote and it was also the first time the three main parties were

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All 129 seats to the Scottish Parliament 65 seats needed for a majority

Scottish Parliament
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The Scottish Parliament, is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the city, Edinburgh. The most recent general election to the Parliament was held on 5 May 2016, as a consequence, both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England ceased to exist, and the Parliament of Great Britain, w

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The public entrance of the Scottish Parliament building, opened in October 2004

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Queen Elizabeth II at the opening of the Scottish Parliament on July 1, 1999 alongside then First Minister of Scotland Donald Dewar and then Presiding Officer Lord Steel of Aikwood

Nicola Sturgeon
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Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon is a Scottish politician who is the fifth and current First Minister of Scotland and the leader of the Scottish National Party, in office since 2014. She is the first woman to hold either position, Sturgeon has been a member of the Scottish Parliament since 1999, first as an additional member for the Glasgow electoral regio

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The Right Honourable Nicola Sturgeon MSP

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Sturgeon (front right) with former leader Alex Salmond and the rest of the Scottish Government cabinet following election in 2011

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US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Nicola Sturgeon at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on 10 June 2015

Ruth Davidson
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After graduating from Edinburgh University, she worked as a BBC journalist and signaller in the Territorial Army. In the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, Davidson stood for election in the Glasgow Kelvin constituency and she finished in 4th place in the former, but was successful in the latter, and following party leader Annabel Goldies resignati

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Ruth Davidson MSP

Scottish National Party
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The Scottish National Party is a Scottish nationalist and social-democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence and its leader, Nicola Sturgeon, is the current First Minister of Scotland. With the advent of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, the SNP became the second largest party, serving two terms a

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Nicola Sturgeon, Leader of the Scottish National Party

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Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba

Scottish Conservative Party
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It describes itself as a centre-right political party. It is the second largest party in the devolved Scottish Parliament, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives is Ruth Davidson MSP, who has held the post since 2011. The modern Scottish Conservative Party was established in 1965 with the merger of the Unionist Party into the Conservative Party o

Scottish Labour Party
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The Scottish Labour Party is the Scotland branch of the British Labour Party. Labour hold 23 of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and two of six Scottish seats in the European Parliament, after these, Scottish Labour entered a coalition with the Scottish Liberal Democrats, forming a majority Scottish Executive. It remained the second largest par

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Red indicates the seat won by Labour at the 2015 General Election.

Scottish National Party leadership election, 2014
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There was a Scottish National Party leadership election to choose the new leader of the Scottish National Party at the SNPs conference on 14–15 November 2014. Nicola Sturgeon was elected unopposed as the new leader of the SNP, SNP depute leader and Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was widely tipped as the favourite to succeed Salmond after the

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Candidate

Patrick Harvie
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Patrick Harvie is the co-convener of the Scottish Green Party and Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Glasgow region. He was first elected in the 2003 election and was re-elected in 2007,2011 and 2016, Harvie went to Dumbarton Academy between 1984–1991, and attended Manchester Metropolitan University where he was briefly a member of the Labou

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Patrick Harvie MSP

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Patrick Harvie MSP campaigning in Dennistoun, Glasgow

Maggie Chapman
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Maggie Chapman is a Scottish politician who is the co-convenor of the Scottish Green Party. Chapman is the Rector of the University of Aberdeen, having been elected in 2014, Chapman was born in 1979 in Rhodesia. Her family had moved from South Africa to Rhodesia in 1978 for her father to take up the post of director at the college of music and she

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Councillor Maggie Chapman

Willie Rennie
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William Cowan Rennie is a Scottish politician and current Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats after he succeeded the post in May 2011. After college, Rennie spent most of his career as a Liberal Democrat election campaigner. He became the Member of Parliament for Dunfermline and West Fife after a win in February 2006. He later lost this seat t

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Willie Rennie MSP

Scottish Green Party
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The Scottish Green Party is a green political party in Scotland. The party has six MSPs in the Scottish Parliament as of 2016, the party also have twelve councillors in 5 of the 32 Scottish local councils. The Scottish Green Party was created in 1990 when the former Green Party split into separate, independent parties, for Scotland, Northern Irelan

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Scottish Green Party Pàrtaidh Uaine na h-Alba Scots Green Pairty

Scottish Liberal Democrats
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The Scottish Liberal Democrats is a liberal and social-liberal political party in Scotland. The Scottish Liberal Democrats hold 5 of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 1 of 59 Scottish seats in the UK Parliament. The Scottish Liberal Democrats are one of the three state parties within the federal Liberal Democrats, the others being the Welsh

Glasgow (Scottish Parliament electoral region)
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Glasgow is one of the eight electoral regions of the Scottish Parliament. Nine of the parliaments 73 first past the post constituencies are sub-divisions of the region, thus it elects a total of 16 MSPs. As a result of the First Periodic Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries the boundaries of the region, in terms of first past the post constitue

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Glasgow shown within Scotland

North East Fife (Scottish Parliament constituency)
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North East Fife is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election, the region covers all of the Clackmannanshire council area, all of the Fife council area, all of the Perth and Kinross council area and all of the Stirling council area. Fife is represented in the Scotti

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North East Fife

First Minister of Scotland
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The First Minister of Scotland is the leader of the Scottish Government. The First Minister chairs the Scottish Cabinet and is responsible for the formulation, development. The First Minister is a Member of the Scottish Parliament and nominated by the Scottish Parliament before being appointed by the monarch. Members of the Cabinet and junior minis

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Incumbent Nicola Sturgeon MSP since 19 November 2014

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Donald Dewar was the inaugural First Minister of Scotland, and held office from May 1999, until his death in October 2000.

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US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Nicola Sturgeon at the US Department of State in Washington, D.C., on 10 June 2015

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Bute House at 6 Charlotte Square is the official residence of the First Minister of Scotland.

Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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It describes itself as a centre-right political party. It is the second largest party in the devolved Scottish Parliament, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives is Ruth Davidson MSP, who has held the post since 2011. The modern Scottish Conservative Party was established in 1965 with the merger of the Unionist Party into the Conservative Party o

Scotland Act 1998
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The Scotland Act 1998 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is the Act which established the devolved Scottish Parliament, the Act was amended by Scottish Parliament Act 2004 Constitutional Reform Act 2005 Scotland Act 2012 Scotland Act 2016. The Act specifically declares the continued power of the UK Parliament to legislate in resp

British monarchy
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The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom, its dependencies and its overseas territories. The monarchs title is King or Queen, the current monarch and head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, ascended the throne on the death of her father, King George VI, on 6 Fe

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Queen of the United Kingdom

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Royal coat of arms

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The English Bill of Rights of 1689 curtailed the monarch's governmental power.

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The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the Norman Conquest of 1066.

Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament
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The Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament is the speaker of the Scottish Parliament. The current Presiding Officer is Ken Macintosh, who was elected on 12 May 2016, the Presiding Officer is elected by the Members of the Scottish Parliament, by means of an exhaustive ballot, and also heads the Corporate Body of the Scottish Parliament. He or

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Incumbent Tricia Marwick since 11 May 2011

Members of the Scottish Parliament
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Member of the Scottish Parliament is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament. Seven are elected from each of eight groups of constituencies. Candidates who succeed in being elected to a seat will then have their name removed from the regional list process. All MSP positions become vacant for ele

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Scotland

Royal proclamation
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A proclamation is an official declaration. In many British protectorates the high commissioner or administrator was empowered to legislate by proclamation, in the old system of real property law in England, fines, levied with proclamations, i. e. These proclamations were originally made sixteen times, four times in the term in which the fine was le

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Royal proclamation granting Lord Mayoralty to Oxford.

Majority
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A majority is the greater part, or more than half, of the total. It is a subset of a set consisting of more than half of the sets elements, Majority can be used to specify the voting requirement, as in a majority vote. A majority vote is more than half of the votes cast, a majority can be compared to a plurality, which is a subset larger than any o

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This article is about the mathematical concept of majority. For other uses, see Majority (disambiguation).

Proportional representation
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Proportional representation characterizes electoral systems by which divisions in an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. If n% of the support an particular political party, then roughly n% of seats will be won by that party. The essence of such systems is that all votes contribute to the result, not just a plurality, or a

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Countries by type of PR system

Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions
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Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions were first used in 1999, in the first general election of the Scottish Parliament, created by the Scotland Act 1998. Each region is a group of constituencies, and the DHondt method of allocating additional member seats from party lists is used to produce a form of representation for each region. The to

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Scotland

Plurality voting system
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The plurality voting system is a system in which each voter is allowed to vote for only one candidate, and the candidate who polls the most among their counterparts is elected. In a system based on single-member districts, it may be called first-past-the-post, single-choice voting, in a system based on multi-member districts, it may be referred to

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An example of a plurality ballot.

First past the post
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First-past-the-post voting method is one of several plurality voting methods. It is a common, but not universal, feature of voting methods with single-member electoral divisions, the method is widely used in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and most of their current and former colonies and protectorates, and a few other countries. There i

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A graph showing the difference between the popular vote (inner circle) and the number of seats won by major political parties (outer circle) at the United Kingdom general election, 2015

Mixed member proportional representation
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Mixed-member proportional representation is a hybrid two-tier voting system. MMP was originally used to elect representatives to the German Bundestag and it was used in Romania, in the 2008 and 2012 legislative elections. MMP is a method that uses party list proportional representation as its proportional component. It is considered a system, which

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Ballot for electoral district 252, Würzburg, for the 2005 German federal election. Constituency vote on left, party list vote on right.

Scottish Parliament election, 2011
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The 2011 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday,5 May 2011 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish National Party won 69 seats, the most the party has held at either a Holyrood or Westminster election. The SNP gained 32 constituencies, twenty two from the Scottish Labour Party, nine from the Scottish Liberal Democra

1.
All 129 seats to the Scottish Parliament 65 seats needed for a majority

Boundary Commission for Scotland
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The Speaker of the House of Commons is ex officio chairman of each of the boundary commissions. The Speaker however does not play any part in proceedings, with a boundary commission having a Justice being appointed as Deputy Chairman Commissioner. The commissions are currently established under the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986, most recent

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HMG coat of arms

Scottish Westminster constituencies
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Constituency boundaries have changed on various occasions, and are now subject to both periodical and ad hoc reviews of the Boundary Commission for Scotland. Since 1950 each Scottish constituency has been either a burgh constituency or a county constituency, defined by geographic boundaries, more historically there have been university constituenci

1.
Scotland

United Kingdom general election, 2005
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The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday,5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party led by Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, as of 2017, it remains the last Labour general election victory in the UK. The Labour campaign emphasised a strong economy, however, Blair had suffere

1.
All 646 seats to the House of Commons 324 seats needed for a majority

Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004
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The Scottish Parliament Act 2004 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that amends the Scotland Act 1998 which established the Scottish Parliament. There are currently 73 constituency Members of the Scottish Parliament and 56 regional additional-member MSPs, the Scotland Act also provided that the Boundary Commission for Scotland when r